In 2007 representatives from Canada (Dr. Iva Lloyd, ND, Dr. Dennis O’Hara PhD, ND and Shawn O’Reilly (Executive Director of the CAND)) and the USA (Dr. Tabatha Parker, ND and Dr. Seroya Crouch) attended the WHO consultation in Milan, Italy to participate in a consultation on Herbal Medicine and Naturopathy training. This consultation on Herbal Medicine and Naturopathy Training was then published in 2010 in the document Benchmarks in Training in Naturopathy.
In 2010 Dr. Jon Wardle, ND, PhD – who had been actively researching naturopathic medicine worldwide for a number of years – and Dr. Tabatha Parker, ND – who founded Naturopathic Doctors International (NDI) – opened up dialogue with various groups and encouraged international collaboration.
In 2012 the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP) formed the Global Health Network. Over time Jon Wardle and Tabatha Parker requested the support of the Global Health Network on facilitating an international dialogue with various naturopathic organizations.
In 2013 the 1st International Congress on Naturopathic Medicine (ICNM) was held in Paris France. During the meeting there were numerous discussions about a formal world naturopathic organization. Many of those conversations were spear-headed by Dr. David Schleich, PhD, a member of the Global Health Network and Anne Marie Narboni, ND, president of ICNM.
In May of 2014 naturopathic doctors Tabatha Parker, Michael Cronin and Kyle Cronin attended the WHO World Health Assembly as invited guests of the World Chiropractic Federation (WCF). In 2015 the WCF again invited naturopathic doctors Tabatha Parker, Michael Cronin and Tina Hausser to the WHO Global Assembly as their guests and the World Federation of Public Health Association (WFPHA) invited Jon Wardle, PhD, ND.
Due to the collective efforts of Jon Wardle, Tabatha Parker and ICNM a meeting of over 30 naturopaths / naturopathic doctors from 20 countries was held at the 2nd ICNM conference in Paris, France in July of 2014.
At the ICNM conference there was consensus that the World Naturopathic Federation would be established. During those meetings the Mission statement of the WNF was agreed to and an Interim Committee representing eight countries was formed. The Interim Committee consisted of representatives from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, India, New Zealand, Spain and the United States of America. Below are the Press Releases announcing the formation of the WNF:
One of the initiatives of the Interim Committee was to complete a global naturopathic workplace survey exploring definitions and principles, educational models and regulatory standards. A 79 question survey was completed by twenty-two countries, representing all world regions. The results of this initial survey were compiled in the document titled World Naturopathic Federation Report June 2015 and were presented at the inaugural meeting of the WNF in June of 2015 at the CAND Health Fusion conference in Calgary, Canada. World Federation Report_June2015
The inaugural meeting had full members, educational members and associate member representatives from five of the world regions and resulted in three new initiatives with the aim of clarifying the landscape of naturopathic medicine worldwide. The first initiative involves an in depth look at the history of naturopathy / naturopathic medicine and how it is defined throughout the world. The second initiative is a professional mapping project that will assist in clarifying the various models of education that are used and how they relate to naturopathic philosophy, principles and practice worldwide. The third project involves the formation of an international WNF research group, a gathering of the tremendous body of naturopathic research available worldwide and the recognition for ongoing naturopathic research. Below are the Press Releases that followed the inaugural meeting in June 2015:
The following are the founding members of the WNF:
